Language/French/Grammar/Nouns-which-change-meaning-when-they-change-gender
Bonjour! French learners 😀
Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there is no easy rules for predicting the gender of a noun.
Here is a list of French nouns that have different meanings when they are masculine and when they are feminine.
Please write a comment below if you know of other similar nouns! 👌
Examples
| French | English | French | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| un aide | a helper | l'aide (f) | help |
| un chèvre | a goat's cheese | une chèvre | a goat |
| un crème | a white coffee | la crème | cream |
| le crêpe | crêpe (cloth) | une crêpe | a pancake |
| un espace | a space | une espace | a space (in printing) |
| un critique | a critic | une critique | a criticism |
| un laque | artwork | une laque | a hair lacquer or gloss paint |
| un manche | a handle | une manche | a sleeve |
| un livre | a book | une livre | a pound (money or weight) |
| un manoeuvre | an unskilled worker | La Manche | the English Channel |
| un mémoire | a dissertation | une manoeuvre | a manoeuvre |
| un mode | a way of. . . | la merci | mercy |
| un merci | a thank you | la mémoire | memory (faculty of) |
| (un mode de vie) | (a way of life) | une mode | a fashion |
| un moule | a mould | une moule | a mussel |
| le physique | appearance | la physique | physics |
| un pendule | a pendulum | une pendule | a clock |
| un poste | a job, TV or radio set | la poste | the Post Office |
| un poêle | a stove | une poêle | a frying pan |
| un somme | a nap | une somme | a sum (of money) |
| le solde | balance (in an account) | la solde | pay (usually with reference to soldier's pay) |
| un tour | a turn, trick | une tour | a tower |
| le Tour de France | bicycle race | La Tour Eiffel | The Eiffel tower |
| un vase | a vase | la vase | mud |
| un voile | a veil | une voile | a sail |
chose
The noun "chose" is normally feminine when it means 'thing': la/une chose. But the expressions quelque chose 'something', autre chose 'something else', peu de chose 'nothing much', pas grand-chose 'not a great deal' are masculine:
The noun "chose" is feminine when it means "thing": "la/une chose".
But the following expressions:
- "quelque chose" (something),
- "autre chose" (something else),
- "peu de chose", (nothing much),
- "pas grand-chose", (not a great deal)
are masculine:
- Quelque chose est arrivé
Something happened
versus
- Cette chose est arrivée
This thing happened
gens
Gens 'people' requires immediately preceding adjectives or quantifiers to be feminine, but following adjectives/participles or preceding adjectives/quantifiers separated from gens to be masculine:
- Ces vieilles gens sont heureux
Those old people are happy
- certaines gens
some people
- tous les gens
everyone
- Rassurés, les gens qui manifestaient se sont dispersés
Having been reassured, those demonstrating dispersed
amour
amour 'love' is normally masculine singular. It is sometimes, however, feminine plural: les amours. When feminine plural it can mean 'amorous adventures' or it can be a more poetic way of referring to love.